The ‘third way’ to micro- and macrotypography

Jost Hochuli: Printed matter

Niggli, SF128

The Swiss book designer Jost Hochuli is well known, both as a typographer and as a writer. He has come to represent the ‘third way’ in Swiss typography: neither purely ‘constructive’ – in the grid-and-grot manner popularised by Müller-Brockmann – nor symmetric and traditional, like the late work of Tschichold.

This book, designed by Hochuli, is a survey of his work, divided into three sections: graphic design, lettering cut in wood and lino, and – much the largest – books and booklets. There are three essays: an overall review of Hochuli as a book designer by Hans Peter Willberg; Robin Kinross on Hochuli’s English connections; and typesetting technology by Hochuli himself.

Hochuli’s training was eccentric. Many of Switzerland’s most brilliant designers began their working life in the printing industry. Hochuli did the opposite, first qualifying as a graphic designer in his home town of St Gallen, in the north-east of Switzerland, before training as a compositor . . .